My core argument in this book has been that, far from being an invention of the post–Cold War era, humanitarian disarmament has had a long and complex history dating back at least 150 years to the St Petersburg Declaration in 1868. My aim in drawing out that history (or at least some of it) has been to expose humanitarian disarmament’s failures as well as successes, ebbs as well as flows, limitations as well as potential. I have shown that humanitarian disarmament, both in practice and in theory, is a complex and politicised concept, and one which is still evolving today.